If Mr. Clark's conjecture be correct, they are the clerical
members of the choir. Two of them have a scarf over a surplice or, as is
more likely, a loose-sleeved cassock. Lowest in rank are the surpliced
choristers wearing hoods, with, in some instances, a liripipe depending
from them behind.
JUDICIAL
CHAPTER X
THE ORDER OF THE COIF
Between the Universities and the Judiciary of England in ancient times
there existed a close link, which is to be found in the _serviens ad
legem_ or Serjeant-at-Law. He was at once a graduate and a public
official concerned with the administration of justice either as a
recognized pleader or as a judge, for, whether in the higher or lower
grade, he owed his credentials to the Crown.
We will consider the Serjeant-at-Law in the first place in his academic
character, in which he might rank as a B.C.L. or as a Doctor Legum,
though this is not quite what we intended by graduation. Law, like the
other liberal professions, has always been regardful of outward and
visible signs. This being so, we trust we have committed no very serious
sin of plagiarism in borrowing as the heading of this chapter the title
of a well-known work by Serjeant Pulling, one of the last survivors of
the order. At any rate, the plagiarism is open and avowed.
Though the most significant, the coif was not the only exterior note of
the Serjeant, in contradistinction to the laymen; and, in order to show
how he appeared, when in full professional attire, we think we cannot do
better than quote from a fifteenth-century lawyer, one of our greatest
authorities on such matters--Serjeant Fortescue.
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